Feeling Right at Home
As I’ve mentioned before, Australia is a Power Place for me. I feel unusually grounded, spiritually connected, and empowered there. Sydney Harbor holds a unique familiarity, and I have spent many hours walking and exploring the area. While I have only visited Sydney on three occasions, it feels like home.
Walking the Walk through History
Certain areas in the city, like the Nurses Walk, hold a magnetic attraction to my spirit. The Nurse’s Walk is a narrow path that winds through a network of lanes and passageways in the upscale Rocks neighborhood of Sydney Harbor. As the name suggests, the Nurse’s Walk was the path followed by nurses on their way to work over two centuries ago.
New South Wales was established as a British penal colony, so the majority of the settlers of Sydney Harbor consisted of convicts and their marine guards. Shortly after the arrival of the ‘First Fleet’ in 1788, two hospitals were constructed to meet the needs of the settlers. Nurses were selected from among the convicts to work in the hospitals.
The hospital grounds included an herb garden which provided medicinal plants & herbs to assist in the treatment of patients. Over time, as the population expanded and waterfront property became more valuable, the hospitals were replaced by more lucrative establishments. In 1979, the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority created the Nurses Walk in honor of the nurses whose healing efforts supported the first European inhabitants of Australia.
Drawn to the Light
I’m not sure what initially drew me to the Nurse’s Walk vicinity. It may have been the residual healing resonances that remain in the area, or it may have been the tug of a past life.
What I do know is that in this lifetime I am attracted to the elevated vibratory frequencies emanating from a remarkable shop located in the ‘heart’ of the Nurses Walk. The Crystal Gallery is the home of one of the finest collections of ‘power’ stones for healing and spiritual attunement in the world. I was drawn to this shop on my first trip to Australia in 1995, and have been a loyal if infrequent customer ever since.
Connecting with Stones
During our few hours in Sydney, I stopped by the shop to admire their crystals, and to see if any called to me. Two stones caught my attention: a rare rose quartz sphere containing a burst of internal light (like a tiger’s eye), and a banded smoky quartz obelisk.
The rose sphere was stunning. Even from across the room, I could feel the stone begin to instantaneously activate my heart chakra. As I held it in my hands, the stone’s subtle vibration worked to fine-tune my heart center in preparation for our journey to connect with the minke whales.
The smoky quartz piece was loud and insistent– it demanded my immediate attention. When I picked it up, I ‘knew’ that I would be needing its assistance in the weeks to come. Smoky quartz is a protection stone that helps us ground to the Earth through our base chakra. It gently neutralizes negative vibrations and assists us in tolerating difficult times with a sense of equanimity. The beautiful obelisk had rutile bands radiating from its center. Rutilated quartz amplifies our connection to our spiritual guidance and intensifies a stone’s healing properties.
Listen & Learn
It was odd to think that I might need a protective stone on a whale trip, but I paid attention to the message. I held the stone and said a silent prayer, thanking it for its wisdom.
I left the rose & smoky quartz pieces at the shop, knowing that I could connect with them remotely from the boat as needed. I also knew that if the Universe intended for these stones to become part of my crystal collection, they would still be at the shop when we returned from our minke adventure.
As it turned out, over the following two weeks I touched base frequently with both stones, and especially that smoky quartz!